


the most wonderful time of the year

by perfectlyrose



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Families of Choice, Family, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Not Season/Series 08 Compliant, Post-Canon, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-21
Updated: 2019-12-21
Packaged: 2021-02-24 17:13:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21881575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perfectlyrose/pseuds/perfectlyrose
Summary: Krolia picks up on what he doesn’t say, because of course she does. “Did you not celebrate?” she asks, turning towards him. He’s told her about the group homes and unsuccessful foster placements, but in broad strokes.Keith shrugs. “A little, but not much. Always seemed like something for other people instead of me.”Keith discovers the magic of the season with a little help from his family.
Relationships: Keith & Krolia (Voltron), Keith & Voltron Paladins
Comments: 19
Kudos: 109
Collections: Ace Pilot Exchange 2019





	the most wonderful time of the year

**Author's Note:**

  * For [EmberGlows](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmberGlows/gifts).



> for the loveliest and dearest [ember](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmberGlows/pseuds/EmberGlows) who i adore & ardently admire.
> 
> you gave me so many incredible prompts for the AP exchange so please prepare for an entire years worth of presents as i'm going to write like 80% of them <3

In the aftermath of the war, of the destruction Earth endured, Keith finds it incredible that as cold settles over the desert little signs of the holidays still start popping up everywhere. Mismatched Christmas lights appear in shop windows and on houses. Tinsel garlands that look like they were scavenged from an attic somewhere after being forgotten for fifteen years are draped over various surfaces, garish in their sparkly cheer.

Resources are still scarce, but humans will always find a way.

Krolia is fascinated with the Christmas decorations and festivities starting to saturate the towns around the Garrison and the Garrison itself. Last time she was on Earth for the holidays, she hadn’t been able to venture into town to see all the glitz and hubbub. Now that she has the chance, she drags Keith and whoever else is available to all of the different events and pop-up markets.

“Did you go to this as a kit?” Krolia asks quietly as they watch the official tree lighting in Platte City. Her eyes are bright as she watches the lights twinkle. A local choir is singing and Keith recognizes about three of the songs in their current mash-up. The other paladins are around them too, chattering about Christmas plans and favorite songs.

He shakes his head. “Dad might have brought me, but I don’t remember. After that…” he trails off with a shake of his head. He doesn’t want his less than stellar Christmas experiences from adolescence to taint his mom’s excitement.

Krolia picks up on what he doesn’t say, because of course she does. “Did you not celebrate?” she asks, turning towards him. He’s told her about the group homes and unsuccessful foster placements, but in broad strokes.

Keith shrugs. “A little, but not much. Always seemed like something for other people instead of me.”

Krolia frowns, biting her lip in a way that Keith recognizes as something he does himself. It warms something in him to see something so familiar on her face, to be reminded that he  _ has _ family now; he’s surrounded by them, blood-related and not.

She doesn’t say anything more, just puts an arm around his shoulder and tugs him into her side as the choir moves into a rendition of an Olkari winter hymn.

Maybe this is what the big deal about Christmas and the holiday season is all about for everyone, Keith thinks. This feeling of unity and family that acts as a shield from the cold as much as their coats and scarves.

He gets caught up by Hunk and Pidge as they’re leaving and doesn’t think anything of his mom falling in step with Shiro, heads bent together as they talk.

Or, he doesn’t think anything of it until everyone starts going out of their way to make Christmas plans with him. The carefully orchestrated spontaneity of it all has Krolia’s fingerprints all over it.

(“We don’t do Christmas, exactly,” Pidge says pushing up her glasses. “More of a mashup of Christmas and Hanukkah with some pagan traditions thrown in there. You’re coming over on the 23rd for dinner. It’s at seven-ish. Bring your mom and like, a bottle of alcohol.”)

(“My mom is going to cry if you don’t get a family Christmas sweater,” Lance says, face super serious. “And I’m not going to be responsible for that so you have to come over so she knows what size to get you and she can feed you the good stuff she only makes at Christmas. You haven’t lived if you haven’t had Cuban Christmas.”)

(“Oh man, you have to stop by later,” Hunk tells him. “We’re starting on the baking and it’s going to smell so good. We can always use an extra hand with the mixing and anyone who helps gets first dibs on tasting and everything goes fast.”)

(“You have to show us the Christmas markets,” Allura says, bright eyed and pleading. “Lance just told me that it’s traditional to give gifts and that you can’t tell people what you’re giving them beforehand. Everyone seems very excited and I want to do it right!”)

(Shiro shows up to Keith’s room with keys in hand and a mischievous grin. “Want to go find a tree for the common room? Think I have Atlas convinced to let me put one up, just have to go find one now.”)

Keith is overwhelmed in the best way. Holiday dinner with the Holts and the paladins and various family members is chaotic in the best way. Lance and Hunk’s families embrace him like one of their own, folding him into their traditions with alacrity. Shopping with Allura and Coran is… an experience. He’s not sure he can go back there anytime soon without feeling the need to apologize to several shopkeepers. 

Tree shopping with Shiro is eventful too. They decide to try and find a fake tree since so many forests were decimated in the attack on Earth, but that’s easier said then done when so many people have the same idea. They finally find a decent sized tree in decent shape about fifty miles from the Garrison, in about the tenth market they’ve visited. Keith almost fights someone who tries to buy it while Shiro is hunting up the shopkeeper to pay.

The paladins and other members of their hodgepodge family are waiting in the common room when they return with the tree. Hunk has eggnog which Coran and Lance have both spiked, rendering it near-lethal, and the others have procured lights and a hodge-podge of ornaments.

Keith’s not sure who hooked up their phone to the speakers to play Christmas songs, but the common room is full of joyous chaos and off-key singing from Shiro and Pidge and he’s not sure his heart has ever been fuller.

Krolia appears at his side and picks a piece of tinsel out of his hair. “Are you enjoying the holiday season this year?” She sips at her eggnog, face not betraying any reaction to the nunvil and rum spiked monstrosity.

Keith watches his friends, his family, really, mill around the room, laughing and deciding where the mistletoe should be hung and arguing if there is enough tinsel on the tree before going back to tossing it on each other instead.

He knows the space under the tree will be filled with presents wrapped in whatever wrapping paper people have scraped together and that this time, some of them will actually have his name on them. He’s already itching to put the ones he has wrapped and ready back in his quarters underneath the haphazardly decorated tree.

Objectively, it’s probably terrible, but as far as Keith’s concerned, it’s the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen.

“I am,” he says, smile soft as he looks up at Krolia. “Merry Christmas, Mom.”

She smiles back and wraps an arm around his shoulders to tug him close. “Merry Christmas, kit.”

**Author's Note:**

> come find me on twitter [ @LionessNapping](https://twitter.com/LionessNapping)


End file.
